Sponsorship strategy Custom Essay

Sponsorship strategy
Word Count: 3000 words (please don’t include your reference list in your word count)
Value: 30%

Details of task
• This assignment follows on from the first assignment.
• This assignment asks you to provide a sponsorship strategy that will attract sponsors for your chosen team and retain them via value-exchange.
• By ‘value exchange’ I am referring to the fact that the people who study sport sponsorship do so because they typically want to work in the sporting industry. And yet it is the sponsors that work

outside the sporting industry (e.g. Coca-Cola, Mastercard, Heineken, Vodafone etc) that are in greatest need of this knowledge (e.g. they’re the ones that have to choose congruent teams to sponsor, they’re

the ones that have to articulate the sponsorship if it is not congruent, they’re the ones that have to leverage their sponsorship etc). In other words, the people that have to do the most work with sponsorship

have the least knowledge about it.
• To compensate for this, your knowledge must become a key source of benefit to potential sponsors in the value exchange that occurs between team and sponsor. That is why you as the

sponsorship manager of your chosen team (e.g. Melbourne Vixens, Melbourne Heart, GWS Giants or Melbourne Rebels) are being asked to discuss concepts that seemingly fall within the responsibility of

sponsors.
• The structure for the assignment can be as complex or as simple as you like, just so long as it is well researched and covers key relevant sponsorship concepts from Weeks 8-11.
• You may even prefer to approach the assignment as though it was a sponsorship proposal in which you have identified a potential sponsor and are sending them a plan that details the brand

objectives the sponsorship could achieve for their firm, the benefits the firm will receive in exchange for their sponsorship, and your suggested strategy for ensuring that their sponsorship will be successful (e.g.

congruence, articulation, leveraging, ambush marketing etc).
• Because your assignment is designed to represent a real-world strategy, be very specific. For example, choose a potential sponsor that represents an ideal ‘fit’ for your team, and then explain why.

What benefits will you seek from them? What benefits will you offer in return? What else should an ‘ideal’ sponsorship strategy include?

Criteria for Marking
The key criteria used to evaluate your work will include:
a. Research effort (e.g. at least 20 references in your reference list, every single one of which is also referenced in the body of your essay).
b. Theoretical understanding. Have you identified the key sponsorship concepts for such a context? Have you shown a proper theoretical understanding by defining each one and utilising it in its

correct form?
c. Practical understanding. Is your strategy realistic? In other words, would it actually work in the real world? For example, ambush marketing is a real problem in an Olympic context, but is it a

problem that needs to be addressed in your team-context, and in the context of a 3000 word limit?
d. Is your work free of errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation etc?

Presentation requirements: Structured essay format (e.g. an essay with sub-headings)

Referencing requirements
Students are required to meet the Q Manual standards for all assignment submissions. This includes using the Q Manual in-text method for citation of sources, referencing and formatting essays and reports.

The Q Manual can be accessed at:
http://www.buseco.monash.edu.au/publications/qmanual/qmanual.pdf
Dear MKG3200 students,
1 All assignments should include an assignment cover sheet, so I have attached one for your convenience.
2 Please ignore standard protocol in relation to spacing for your assignment, because I think the environment is far more important. That being the case, please use single-spacing for the 2nd

assignment.
Because this assignment is followed on from the first assignment, I will also give you some details about the first assignment as a supplement.

The first assignment has already been done, so you just need to scan the following one to help you finish the assignment 2. Also I will give you the assignment 1 in another attachment. Thank you!

Assessment task 1
Title: Assignment #1: Marketing Strategy based on fan behaviour
Word limit: 3000 words (please don’t include your reference list in your word count)

Details of task
• As the unit code indicates, MKG3200 is a third (and final) year unit. This means students undertaking this unit will be close to graduating and should therefore be looking to develop and illustrate

the skills employers so desperately crave. One such skill is the ability to apply your learning to the ‘real-world’. This assignment has been deliberately designed to help you develop this key skill.
• To help you develop the ability to apply your learning to the ‘real-world’, choose one of the following actual sporting teams – Melbourne Vixens (women’s netball), Melbourne Heart (soccer),

GWS Giants (AFL football) and Melbourne Rebels (rugby union) – and use your learning from weeks 3 to 5 on fan loyalty, motives and segments to develop a marketing strategy that will improve the business

performance of your chosen team.
• By ‘improve’ I simply mean game attendance and/or increasing fan membership.
• Okay, that’s the easy bit: now the more difficult challenge. In developing your marketing strategy (e.g. target market, positioning strategy, product strategy, promotion strategy etc), you must ensure

that each element is specifically inspired by theory relating to fan-behavior. The purpose of this assignment is to test your ability to apply fan-behaviour theory to the ‘real-world’ and you cannot do this unless

you make extensive use of it. As a self-test in this regard, unless an aspect of your marketing strategy is directly ‘inspired’ by a specific aspect of fan behavior, it should not be included in your assignment.

Hence each discussion of a marketing strategy concept should be immediately preceded by a fan-behaviour concept.
• Begin preparing for this assignment immediately. In the context of the 12 hours per week you are required to dedicate to your study, you should allocate at least 20 hours to the task of researching

this assignment.

Criteria for Marking
The key criteria used to evaluate your work will include:
e. Research effort (e.g. at least 20 references in your reference list, every single one of which is also referenced in the body of your essay).
f. Theoretical understanding. Have you identified the key fan-behavior concepts for your chosen team context? Have you shown a proper theoretical understanding by defining each one and utilising it

correctly?
g. Practical understanding. Is your strategy realistic? In other words, would it actually work in the real world? For example, is it realistic to target male-fans as potential members of the Melbourne

Vixens netball team?
h. Connections: Have you connected theory and practice by ensuring that each suggested market strategy is justified via fan-behaviour theory?
i. Is your work free of errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation etc?

Format: Structured Essay (e.g. an essay with sub-headings). While there is no set structure for this essay, one possible suggestion would be to structure it around the following sub-headings: Introduction, a

separate sub-heading for each fan-behavior concept, Conclusion and Reference list.

Dear MKG3200 students,

A couple of students are having trouble interpreting the assignment instructions, so I will clarify further. Furthermore, I have simplified the assignment by adding another relevant topic you might wish to consider

including – Week 7: Relationship marketing. This topic is strongly related to fan loyalty. More specifically, relationship marketing in a fan context typically takes the form of fans becoming members (or season

ticket holders as it’s also called) of the sporting club. Obviously the decision by a fan to become a member will be influenced by their level of loyalty. The beauty of adding this Weekly topic to the assignment is

that it is directly relevant to one of the two assignment goals (e.g. increasing fan membership).

You will also see that I have added a host of other new readings under Weeks 3 to 5. Many (but not all) of these are directly relevant to the assignment because they specifically identify factors that influence

attendance. In other words, I’ve summarised yet another set of information for you that will directly answer the other assignment goal (e.g. increasing attendance).

Based on this new information I am going to add an alternative assignment instruction. It doesn’t change the original assignment in any way: I simply hope that this alternative instruction will help remove any

confusion as to how straightforward this assignment really is:
1. Using the reading materials from Weeks 3-5 and 7 (and any additional research of your own you might like to add) devise a marketing strategy to increase game attendance and/or the fan

membership of your chosen team. I use the term “and/or” because given the word limit, you might decide to go into an in-depth discussion of just one of these two goals. Either approach (e.g. one or both) is

fine.
2. You do not need to read the actual journal articles themselves. I have simply provided their full reference details for your convenience. For the purpose of the assignments and the exam you do not

need to go beyond reading the summaries I have provided for each article. Best of all, I am giving you permission to include that reference in your reference list and include its content in your answer, even

though you have not read the original article itself.
3. Moreover, if you decide you want to access additional journal-article findings, I have shortlisted below those that are likely to prove most helpful:
1. International Sports Journal
2. Journal of Sport Management
3. Journal of Sport & Tourism
4. International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing
5. International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship
6. Sport Management Review
7. Sport Marketing Quarterly.
4. Please remember though that there are two other underlying goals to this assignment; (1) it must be based on sports marketing concepts; and (2) it must be realistic. I will explain the importance of

this advice using an example. Theodorakis et al., (2013 – Week 4 additional readings; Article 7) found that game quality has a bigger influence on game attendance (goal #1 of your assignment) than do factors

such as stadium comfort, quality of stadium-staff service, ease of stadium access etc. While this is important for you to know in the context of the overall unit, is it relevant to the assignment? Game quality is an

on-field matter and therefore lies outside the sphere of a typical marketing strategy (though there is scope for discussing this area if you think creatively). In contrast, stadium comfort, staff service, and stadium

access are all matters that definitely fall within the scope of a sports marketing strategy.
5. I have also received a question about the structure of the assignment. I will clarify the assignment structure using another example from your readings. Yoshida et al., (2013 – Week 4 additional

readings; Article 6) found that stadium staff (e.g. food vendors, security personnel, seat ushers etc), stadium access (e.g. signage and stadium layout), seating (e.g. views, comfort etc) and stadium atmosphere

all influence game attendance. You could therefore structure the body of your answer around each of these influences. This would simply involve providing a separate sub-heading and strategy for each relevant

influence (e.g. seating).

Additional tips
(5th May)
Dear MKG3200 students,

As of Friday evening, several key learning resources were updated on your Moodle site. These updates revolved primarily around consolidating weeks 3-5, 10 and 12 into a single set of weekly resources (as

opposed, for example, to 3 separate files comprising learning objectives, weekly readings, and additional readings). Equally important, for each of these 5 weeks, the learning objectives were modified to

reflect the new learning content provide by the additional readings.

The timing of the updates to Weeks 10 and 12 is important because they may well serve as useful resources for your 2nd assignment. While on the subject of resources for assignment #2, all of you will need to

(based on my assumption that 10 hours per week is the maximum amount of time you can dedicate to this task) decide between addressing the short-comings identfied in ass#1 vs. the time taken to identify

relevant additional readings to those already included in the weekly readings. As per the attached unit outline, the minimum number of reference list readings utilised in the body of your answer should be 20.

However, given that the weekly readings on sponsorship probably double this in number, some of you may decide that no additional research is necessary. If so, the time you save on research should be

dedicated to:
3 Proof-reading your work so that there are no spelling errors, grammar errors (e.g. sentences missing words), referencing errors (e.g. “and” vs. “&”) etc.
4 Developing a good understanding of your context so that identifying what MKG3200 concepts are relevant becomes a straightforward task (e.g. ambush marketing won’t be relevant to any of the 4

acceptable team-contexts for this assignment).
5 Once you have decided what’s relevant and what’s not, go into greater detail in your discussion on the relevant concepts because depth of discussion conveys depth of understanding.
6 As part of this depth, be specific. For example, if you are discussing leveraging, don’t just state that it’s important for your club to do it: give specific examples of how they should leverage their

sponsorship.
7 Follow a rigid process and find balance. Define the concept first, and if there are several options involved, identify these. Then explain which of these you recommend your team adopt and why,

using references to support your case. You should also find the right balance between conveying your understanding of the concept (e.g. definition, various options it involves) and conveying your ability to

apply theory to the real world (e.g. your own specific examples of how such theory can be applied to your chosen team).
I hope these very specific tips prove useful.

Kind regards.
(16th May) important!!!
Dear MKG3200 students,

I have just received a question from a very conscientious student that has left me wondering whether some students may be heading a little off direction in relation to assignment #2. To sum up the key issues

coming out of assignment #1 (for the record, there weren’t too many, as the standard was quite high):
8 Some students had trouble distinguishing between what was relevant and what was not. This is a key skill that anyone wishing to work in business MUST master.
9 This then led to the 2nd problem – with so many topics to discuss (because less relevant ones had not been weeded out) students were unable to discuss those topics that were relevant, in the

necessary depth to really convey understanding.
10 Proof-reading to eliminate all spelling, grammar, punctuation and referencing errors was either poor or non-existent.
Don’t be confused by what the 2nd assignment is asking. I’m not interested in ‘bells, whistles and shiny beads”. I just want an assignment that serves as a perfect representation of your understanding of:
• The goals that sponsorship can achieve for a sponsor, and your ability to prioritise these.
• Congruence
• Articulation
• Leveraging
However, while focusing on this narrow range of concepts may sound easy enough, there are hidden challenges to overcome. For example:
• How well you can apply some ‘complex’ theory to a real world context. Without wanting to give too much away, in the context of congruence, has anyone noticed the contradictory findings coming

out of the Week 10 readings? For example, articles 1-3 and 14 indicate that congruence improves the effectiveness of sponsorship, while articles 8-9 argue that is does not. So how will you reconcile the two?

While this is a challenge, it is exactly the sort of skill that your future employers will be looking for.
• The same challenge applies to leveraging. While it is generally regarded as being an important part of a successful sponsorship strategy, article 10 (also from Week 10) might suggest otherwise.
• Even your choice of sponsor will have to be given much thought, and should not occur until you have developed a thorough understanding of congruence, articulation and leveraging. For example, if

you choose a highly congruent sponsor then you have just deprived yourself of the potential opportunity to discuss articulation.
• I also suggest visiting a few AFL club websites to get a feel for the sort of sponsors that might also be interested in sponsoring your chosen team. In previous years, students have simply chosen

obvious candidates such as “adidas” or Nike”. Perhaps a visit to a few of these sites will help stimulate some more creative thinking.
• If these tips require an extension in order for you to properly accommodate them into your assignment, please don’t hesitate to email me (but please make sure you do so before the due date).
Kind regards.

An ideal example for Assignment 1

What I am about to do would have virtually every one of my colleagues up in arms because of the time and effort involved on my part, and other associated problems (e.g. students using the feedback that

follows as an appeal opportunity rather than a vital learning exercise). But I am going to do it anyway, because I think it is truly the very best guidance anyone could possibly receive on their assignment work.

There are 3 parts to the feedback that follows:
1. A summary of key issues coming out of the 1st assignment.
2. An extract from a student’s assignment that scored very highly (on behalf of the rest of our study group, a “sincere thanks” to this anonymous student). Please note how this example addresses each

of the potential pitfalls raised in my previous point.
3. And inserted within this extract, my own comments as to why this assignment serves as such a positive role model for not just the 1st assignment but the 2nd as well.

A summary of key issues coming out of the 1st assignment

1. For reasons which I still don’t understand, several students adopted a context outside of the only 4 acceptable contexts for this assignment – Melbourne Vixens (women’s netball), Melbourne Heart

(soccer), GWS Giants (AFL football) and Melbourne Rebels (rugby union). While I marked these assignments on their merits, should any 2nd assignment repeat such a mistake it will receive an automatic fail.

I’m sure we can all understand why such a tough stance is necessary.
2. A key point of this assignment was for you to explain what you would do in terms of your chosen team’s sports marketing. Unfortunately, a couple of students simply described what their team is

already doing, rather than what they should be doing according to MKG3200 concepts. As a result, their assignment was merely descriptive, rather than analytical.
3. A distinct lack of proof reading was evident across most assignments. Referencing format was also a problem. For example, please only use “&” within reference brackets, rather than the actual

sentence itself (in which case you should use “and”).
4. One important area that could definitely be improved is to be more direct, rather than merely descriptive. For example, discussion often focused on ‘why’ fan loyalty is important, rather than ‘how’ a

team should look to create it. Similarly, some students when discussing the PCM simply repeated what it is (not really relevant) rather than stating specifically how it could be used to increase attendance (the

whole point of the assignment).
5. Lack of relevance was also a problem. This typically took 1 of 2 forms: (a) dedicating far too many words to ‘introduction’ and ‘background’ sections; and (b) recommending strategies based on

irrelevant concepts (e.g. suggesting a domestic team such as the GWS should focus on sports tourism).

Student extract

Introduction
In 2009, the Australian Football League (AFL) established the Greater Western Sydney (GWS) Giants. Their position as the newest club in the league creates a number of unique challenges in building fan

loyalty and team identification. This essay proposes a marketing strategy to improve both game attendance and fan membership of the GWS Giants in light of their specific challenges. Suggested tactics are

particularly based on fan-behaviour concepts including the Psychological Continuum Model, Relationship Marketing, and Augmentation.

• Clever use of the word count via clever choice of discussion topics. Note how concise the introduction is. While an introduction is important, it is just that – an introduction. Keep it short and save

your words for the things that really matter – the answer itself. Just as importantly, rather than place key background information in their introduction, the student hold it back and uses it instead to justify specific

strategy recommendations, thereby making such information far more valuable (refer next point).

Ticket prices
The Greater Western Sydney area has a high rate of unemployment, with an unemployment rate of 13.6% in Blacktown Southwest, compared to 4.3% in metropolitan Sydney (WentWest Limited, 2010, p. 3).

Membership with the GWS Giants is therefore significantly cheaper than that of the high membership clubs, such as Collingwood. A premium membership for the GWS Giants costs $430 a season (Greater

Western Sydney Giants, 2014), compared to $895 for Collingwood (Collingwood Football Club, 2014). For a family of two adults and four children, membership with the Giants is $989 (Greater Western

Sydney Giants, 2014). The same membership at Collingwood, but with only two kids included costs $2,470 (Collingwood Football Club, 2014).
• Further to my previous point, some students provided the sort of information provided here in their introduction (or additional ‘background’ section), thereby separating it from their strategy, and

masking its relevance. This student instead has undertaken careful research* relating to their context, and formulated a specific strategy (e.g. ticket price = $430) that is justified by it. *By comparison, more

than one student misspelled the name of the team that served as their context, thereby creating major doubts over the effort they went to when researching their context.

Segmentation and Target Market
Kuper and Szymanski (2009) suggest a number of ways of segmenting fans, including geographically, demographically, by family life cycle, using psychographics, or by behaviour. This marketing strategy

proposes to begin segmenting the market geographically, given the large population size of the Greater Western Sydney area.

The GWS Giant’s position as the newest team in the AFL presents challenges in the development of a fan base given that ‘loyalty makes it very difficult to attract new members from other clubs (McDonald,

2010).’ In this regard, the low number of followers of AFL in the Greater Western Sydney region can be seen as an opportunity, as they are unlikely to be followers of opposition AFL teams. The target

market for the marketing strategy is therefore residents of Greater Western Sydney who are not currently affiliated with a rival AFL club.

• This is a classic example of the simple yet successful formula the student used throughout their assignment. MKG3200 theory first, a specific example of how to apply it to their chosen context,

second. Note how the student illustrates that they understand there are several segmentation variables, before focusing on the one they believe is best. This is important, because without the first part of the

process, the marker is left believing the student thinks there is only one way to segment a market.
• Please also note how the proposed strategy has clearly flowed out of MKG3200 content. It is surprising how often I must remind students that the purpose of any assessment task is for you to

illustrate you have learned and can apply the subject content by using it in your assignment work. There was more than one assignment where strategies were simply stated without being justified in any way by

MKG3200 content.

Psychological Continuum Model
As a new team in the AFL, the marketing strategy for the GWS Giants should be very different to that of established clubs such as Collingwood, Hawthorn and Melbourne. Similar to the strategy of Sydney

FC following the formation of the A-League in 2005 (Lock, 2009), the GWS Giants sought to build team identity by recruiting a famous coach and players. Kevin Sheedy was appointed for the first two

years, bringing with him almost 30 years of coaching experience. The GWS Giants also signed Israel Folau, a star of the NRL for the Brisbane Broncos. The signing of Folau was expected to attract interest

from NRL fans to AFL. After one year, Israel again switched codes, this time to Rugby Union. The influence of these tactics are now minimal in attracting new members and fans, and so different tactics need

to be developed.

Aiken and Koch (2009) examine the factors that influence the team one chooses to support, which include the win-loss ratio, key players, geographic association, social affiliation, and tradition. Given the

target market includes Greater Western Sydney residents who have not yet selected an AFL team to follow, these factors become very important in strategy development. These factors will be examined using

the Psychological Continuum Model (PCM). The PCM is a model used to describe how fans move along a continuum from awareness to allegiance regarding a sport or team (Funk & James, 2001).

Awareness
Funk and James (2001) describe the Awareness stage as occurring when an individual first learns about a sport or team but has yet to develop a preference or favourite. In this instance, the promotion strategy

is to create awareness by leveraging off the geographically based loyalty Greater Western Sydney residents have to other sporting teams, including the Penrith Panthers, Parramatta Eels, and Western Sydney

Wanderers. To gain exposure to the game of AFL, free general admission tickets to a GWS Giants game would be available for members of the Panthers, Eels or Wanderers. A cross-code television, radio

and social media campaign would be developed to position Greater Western Sydney as ‘Australian sport’s triple threat’. The campaign would present the teams as having the traits of the region in line with

Aiken, Campbell and Koch’s argument that people tend to view a sports team similarly to the way they view the city in which the team plays (2013). Market research would be required to establish the traits

perceived by residents as being reflective of the area, but may include being working class, culturally diverse, and passionate about sports.

Attraction
Attraction occurs when an individual acknowledges having a favourite team or sport (Funk & James, 2001). Once Greater Western Sydney residents have become aware of the game of AFL and the GWS

Giants, the objective will be to get them to identify as a GWS Giants supporter. Further financial incentives will be offered in the form of discounted memberships for members of a local NRL or A-League

team. Alternatively, a new product could be created offering a joint membership for following a Greater Western Sydney team in the three codes of AFL, NRL and A-League. Cross-code promotion will

continue with a series of competitions pitting code stars against one another, such as pre-game or half-time sprint races, inter-code competitions in alternative sports such as netball or volleyball, and cross-code

team training sessions. Such tactics aim to develop the profile of key players, and enhance geographic association.

Attachment
In the Attachment stage, a stable psychological connection to a sport or team is created (Funk & James, 2001). For the GWS Giants as a new team, the promotion of early traditions such as the ‘Sydney

Derby’ and building on the related rivalry with the Sydney Swans will help to build team history. Stevens and Rosenberger (2012) argue that the level of following sport has a positive influence on the level of

team identification. As the GWS Giants have an active and comprehensive digital and social media presence, including online, Facebook and Twitter, activities will direct fans to access more information

through these channels.

Allegiance
Funk and James (2001) define the allegiance stage as being marked by a fan persisting with a team, resisting change, exhibiting bias in cognitive processing, and engaging in some form of behaviour related to

the team. In this stage, as the GWS Giants become an older team, membership packages should begin to be tailored according to duration of membership, as suggested by McDonald (2010). Additional

benefits and value should be available to longer-term members, such as additional merchandise, opportunities to interact with players and coaches, and opportunities to be immortalised at the club through

plaques or seat sponsorship.

• Quality over quantity: One of the over-arching themes to this student’s assignment was the realism. Rather than falling into the ‘student trap’ of going for quantity (e.g. trying to include as many

articles as possible, irrespective of their relevance), this student has illustrated a high level of understanding by being able to discriminate between what’s relevant to their context and what’s not. Admittedly it

carries an element of risk (e.g. they may overlook key concepts), but this student got it right. As a result, they conveyed a deep level of understanding by focusing on a smaller number of key concepts, and then

providing an in-depth analysis of each one. Now contrast this with the handful of assignments that discussed international ‘sports tourism’ as a strategy for a domestic context such as the GWS.
• The right balance between MKG3200 content and their own discussion on how to apply it: While the student continues the ideal process of first discussing MKG3200 content, followed by their

own suggestions on how to apply it to the GWS, please also note the right balance between the two. Just enough discussion of the theory to convey understanding, and then a detailed example of how to apply

it (after all, what better way to convey understanding than via a clever example of how to correctly apply it).
• Note also that the link between MKG3200 content and the student’s own discussion is immediate. For example, the student could have described the entire PCM before giving examples of how to

apply it. However, their understanding is conveyed far more easily by discussing each of the 4 stages on a 1-by-1 basis, so that for each stage, they define and then apply it to the GWS via a very specific

example, before moving on to the next stage.

Relationship marketing
As defined by Kim and Trail (2011), relationship marketing refers to all marketing activities directed towards establishing, developing and maintaining successful marketing exchanges. The purpose of

relationship management is to help sporting entities go beyond attracting corporate sponsors and fans on an individual transaction basis to maintain long-term relationship with them (Cousens, Babiak, & Slack,

2001). The relationship of GWS Giants with its members and fans must be nurtured, as overall relationship quality has been found to have a strong influence on game attendance.

A key measure of the quality of the relationship is membership renewal, or conversely, failure to renew, otherwise known as ‘churn’ (McDonald, 2010). This year, membership for the GWS Giants has

dropped by 2,167, representing a percentage drop of 17% (FootyWire, 2014). This percentage correlates exactly with the AFL average (McDonald, 2010).
• Again, such data could have been included in their introduction/background. Instead, they held it back and included it in the body of their answer in order to cleverly justify their strategy.

Pan and Baker (2005) identify five factors that influence membership renewal including team performance, economic factors, game status, the level of excitement and atmosphere experienced at games, and

social factors. Team performance is out of the control of sports marketers, however it is important to capitalise on good performance through public relations and publicity activities. Fans whose social identity

is impacted by their support of GWS Giants may feel a sense of personal success when the team wins, known as vicarious achievement or ‘basking in reflected glory’ (Gerber & Terblanche, 2012). Price is

within the control of the club, and membership rates for the GWS Giants are below those offered by other clubs. Rates for family memberships are also significantly lower, promoting social interaction with

family at the football. This is a key point for a region that has a third of its population 24 years or under (NSW Government, 2014). The GWS Giants are in the most professional league available and the

increasing level of performance, the skill development of its young playing group are adding to the level of excitement experienced at games. Events that build inter-club rivalry, such as the Sydney Derby will

assist to build an atmosphere of drama and excitement.

Further relationship marketing tactics should encourage and provide further opportunities for interaction with players to show members their importance to the club. A membership drive at the beginning of the

season where players make phone calls to non-renewed members will show them how much they are valued by the club. This tactic was implemented by the St Kilda Saints this week, with players such as

Nick Riewoldt and Lenny Hayes contacting fans with lapsed memberships. Other tactics, such as the ability to sponsor particular players for additional membership benefits, or competitions to design special

event jerseys encourage two-way relationships between the club and its members.

Augmentation
Guilianotti (2002) proposes four fan segments, including supporters, followers, fans and flaneurs. The cross-code marketing strategy described earlier, designed to achieve awareness and attraction in the

Psychological Continuum Model, can be considered an effective strategy to target the follower segment. Followers follow the club, but often via the media, and may follow multiple teams. By associating the

GWS Giants with local teams from other codes, the strategy appeals to their already developed geographical affiliation. The team’s advanced digital and social media activity appeals to the segments need for

regular news and media interaction.

The GWS Giants’ strategy can also target flaneurs by augmenting the sport product. Flaneurs follow a sport for a variety of reasons and have a detached relationship with its teams (Giulianotti, 2002). As

Wann, Grieve, Zapalac and Pease (2008) state, this segment is more motivated by entertainment that occurs outside of the sporting contest itself. Green (2001) considers that by broadening an event’s appeal,

the organiser can promote more than just mere competition. The pre-match and post-match cross-code competitions suggested earlier are augmentation tactics that will help foster a sports sub-culture of

followers of Greater Western Sydney sports teams, including AFL, NRL and A-League. To further strengthen the bond between fans, players, coaches and the team, there are a number of other augmentation

tactics that can be implemented. Pre-match membership dinners will increase player and team identification. They will also help the GWS Giants differentiate live attendance from television viewership via the

five senses and other experiential influences (Lee, Lee, Seo, & Green, 2012). Such events will build the ‘sense of home’ of the GWS Giant’s home stadium, encourage social interaction, and have an influence

on sight, sound, touch, smell and taste factors. Functions to celebrate membership number milestones will encourage members to feel part of the club, and give an opportunity to promote that membership is

the best way to support the club (McDonald, 2010). Seminars for members on sports science and fitness will appeal to a distinct sub-culture of followers. These followers will have a social identity that can

be defined in terms of their membership of a group of fit and capable athletes. Attendance at such a seminar would enhance their individual self-esteem.